Six months after the shattering news, Anton Corbijn remains emotional about the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman. ‘‘For everybody, it was an incredible shock,’’ the Dutch filmmaker says. ‘‘It’s an incredible loss to the film world and the theatre world. I liked him very much as a person – there were many people who liked him a lot as a person – so it was an incredible event.’’

The repetition – incredible, incredible, incredible – suggests how much Corbijn is still dealing with the loss.

Strong: Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as Gunter Bachmann in A Most Wanted Man and writer John Le Carre (right) has a small part. Photo: Supplied

In Corbijn's thriller A Most Wanted Man – a tense adaptation of a John Le Carre novel about the pursuit of Islamic terrorists in Hamburg – Hoffman gives a hauntingly brilliant performance as the rumpled and driven head of a secret German intelligence unit.

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Hoffman and Corbijn worked so well together that the actor was down for a role in the director's next film, Life, until he was found dead in his New York apartment in February. After more than 20 years of sobriety, he had heroin, cocaine, benzodiazepines and amphetamine in his system.

‘‘Philip was like a bull in a way,’’ Corbijn says. ‘‘He was so present, more present than any other actor I’ve ever met.’’

Corbijn has worked with some very accomplished actors since he shifted into filmmaking after taking photographs and making music videos with the biggest bands in the world. His first film was Control (2007), a biopic about Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, played by Sam Riley. After Control won awards around the world, Corbijn made the 2010 thriller The American, with George Clooney.

Originally, he planned to make A Most Wanted Man as a German film, given it is mostly set in Hamburg. But the difficulty of financing the film raised the prospect of international actors.

‘‘Once Philip’s name came up – and I have to say it was my girlfriend who mentioned him at first – there was no way back,’’ Corbijn says. ‘‘Once you think of Philip, that’s it really."

Philip Seymour Hoffman didn't want his kids to be known as 'trust fund kids'. Photo: AP

Their first meeting was comical. As Corbijn wrote in The Guardian shortly after Hoffman’s death, he was taking photos of the actor for Vogue in a New York hotel. Then, as Hoffman’s trousers were being mended in the next room, they talked about the film with the actor sitting in his underwear.

‘‘That was quite a funny start to this whole project,’’ Corbijn says. ‘‘He was aware that I was going to meet him that day but the people that arranged it weren’t aware I was also the photographer.’’

In the film, Hoffman plays Gunter Bachmann, the doggedly determined, chain-smoking head of an anti-terrorism unit. With a sharp script by Australian Andrew Bovell (Lantana, Edge of Darkness), A Most Wanted Man also has Willem Dafoe as the head of a private bank and Robin Wright as a CIA agent.

While Hoffman is still to appear in the next two instalments of The Hunger Games, A Most Wanted Man is his final starring role. ‘‘He’s put on screen so many very interesting and very extreme characters,’’ Corbijn says. ‘‘Bachmann is less extreme. He’s more a normal guy who works a lot, doesn’t take care of himself, has basically a good heart and is interested in people.

‘‘It’s a more difficult role to play in a way because you can’t be extreme. But the beauty of Philip is all these nuances he put in there. He gives the role such an incredible depth, an obvious sign of a great actor.’’

Was Corbijn aware of Hoffmann’s personal struggles while making the film? ‘‘I think Philip struggled with his abilities,’’ he says. ‘‘He was so gifted and he wanted to go so deep, he was like an artist who fights himself. That’s what a lot of artists do. So, yes, that struggle was obvious. But the other stuff wasn’t.’’

While The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was turned into a film starring Richard Burton in 1965, Le Carre’s novels have been especially fertile ground for filmmakers in recent years, with The Tailor of Panama, The Constant Gardener, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and, soon, Our Kind of Traitor.

While the author once raised doubts about the value of movie adaptations by saying ‘‘why slaughter an ox to make a stock cube?’’, Corbijn thinks he has well and truly changed his mind. Not only is the novelist an executive producer but two of his sons, Simon and Stephen Cornwell, are producers on A Most Wanted Man.

‘‘They’re very protective of their legacy,’’ Corbijn says. ‘‘He probably had to approve me, although I was not aware of the process. He’s also in the film but it’s a very small role. I think he found it too small.’’

The novel was written in 2008, but A Most Wanted Man feels very contemporary. ‘‘After I finished the film, you had the bombing in Boston and the bombers came from Chechnya," says Corbijn. "Then you had all the Snowden revelations about the NSA spying on Germany. And the CIA's [station chief in Germany ] was sent back to America. So, yes, it’s very relevant.’’

2 comments so far

A sad loss, he so could have played Kim Beazley in a political thriller.

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August 02, 2014, 9:59AM

Went to see A most wanted Man yesterday. A brilliant actor and a great movie. He is so sadly missed. . Wonderful to see a movie with a great story.